On Wednesday, the hockey.net portal informed that the hockey club, which played in the back room of the Polish Hockey League, reacted strongly to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The club from Bytom resigned from the services of five Russian players. They are goalkeeper Daniil Babec, defenders Kirill Kleimjonov, Yegor Rudskoy and the forward Valery Polinin and Ilya Smirnov. Polinin, together with Błażej Salomon, was the best scorer of the Polish community in the Youth Hockey League. He scored 19 goals in 23 games.
“Everyone refused. So we decided to say goodbye”
– We are not continuing the cooperation with the Russian players for obvious reasons. The club is a municipal company and the city’s position is clear. We help Ukrainians, we say a firm “no” to financing and supporting players from Russia at the level of the municipal company Polonia Bytom – admitted Adam Fras, vice-president of the city of Bytom for hoker.net.
Mariusz Wołosz, the mayor of Bytom, also noted an important issue. He admitted that Russian hockey players did not condemn the actions of Vladimir Putin.
– Players were offered to stay in the club if they criticized and condemned Russia’s military actions in Ukraine. .
This decision of the Polish community in Bytom was opposed by the Association of Ice Hockey Players. It issued a statement in which it was against excluding Russians from Polish competitions.
– The Russians playing in the Polish league are our friends. Neither we nor those who propose sanctions against them know anything about the fact that these players supported Putin’s power or supported the war unleashed by this power. It is possible that these players are the same or greater opponents of the current Russian authorities than the authors of the silly idea under discussion, or that
There are also two Belarusians in the Polonia Bytom band – brothers Artur and Arciom Siańkiewicz. They both have the “Pole’s Card” and are applying for Polish citizenship.
Source: Sport
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